The present invention relates to vacuum cleaners. More particularly, the present invention relates to an easily used and easily stored lightweight upright vacuum cleaner for suctioning dirt and debris from carpets, floors and above-floor surfaces.
Upright vacuum cleaners are continually being improved and enhanced with larger, more powerful motors and with an assortment of cleaning accessories and attachments. As upright cleaners are enhanced in this manner, they correspondingly increase in size and weight. The height and the footprint of the nozzle base portion of the cleaner have become larger to accommodate the more powerful motors and, perhaps, some accessories. These enhanced upright cleaners are too heavy and occupy too much storage space to be owned by people dwelling in small apartments, trailers, dormitories, and similar locations with limited storage area. Their size also makes cleaning under beds and other furniture difficult. The handle of many such cleaners is connected to the top of the nozzle base, which undesirably increases the overall height of the nozzle base when the handle is reclined for cleaning under beds and the like. Often, the location of the filter bag and the design of the hinge interconnecting the handle portion to the nozzle base portion prevents the handle from being pivoted downward sufficiently far to approach the surface being cleaned as is required for cleaning under furniture. Furthermore, known upright cleaners are too heavy and do not provide an effective means for hanging storage. Rather, they must be stored on the floor of a closet or in the corner of a room.
Upright vacuum cleaners generally utilize large filter bags to capture the dirt and dust liberated from the subjacent surface being cleaned. These bags are either housed in or connected to the upper handle portion of the cleaner. When full, these bags must be disconnected from the cleaner, disposed of, and replaced. The operator of the cleaner must purchase replacement bags regularly. Furthermore, the bag changing operation is time consuming, and some people object to utilizing disposable filter bags. In addition to the space occupied by the filter bag and its cloth or plastic housing, as these bags fill with dirt, the upper portion of the cleaner becomes quite heavy making the vacuum cleaner unbalanced.
Another drawback associated with known upright vacuum cleaners is their lack of an easy to use and effective power cord storage mechanism. Some upright cleaners utilize a mechanism that retracts the power cord into the upper handle portion of the cleaner. Others utilize a pair of spaced hooks connected to the handle around which the cord is wound. The provision of a retractable cord adds complexity, weight, and expense to the vacuum cleaner. The spaced hooks are inconvenient, require the operator to bend over each time the cord is wound around or unwound from the hooks, and do not provide a mechanism for quick and secure short-term storage of the cord. The cord must either be loosely draped over the handle where it is insecure and becomes tangled, or the cord must be completely wrapped around the hooks each time one desires to store the cord.
While certain upright cleaners have been designed in an effort to overcome some of the foregoing deficiencies, they have not been successful. One known cleaner utilizes a dust cup in the nozzle base portion to collect dirt and dust in place of the filter bag. However, the dust cup is difficult to remove from the cleaner. In order to empty the contents of the dust cup, the operator must grasp the filter assembly with two hands. This can result in the spillage of the contents of the dust cup when it becomes separated from the filter assembly.
It would also be desirable to have an upright vacuum cleaner in which the rotation of the brushroll can be stopped for bare floor cleaning or for above-floor cleaning and in which communication between the floor nozzle of the vacuum cleaner and the removable dust container can be blocked when the vacuum cleaner is used for above-floor cleaning.
Accordingly, it is desirable to develop a new and improved upright vacuum cleaner which would overcome the foregoing deficiencies and others while meeting the above-stated needs and providing better and more advantageous overall results.